Bloe’s big night helps SRA boys top Raiders
PAWTUCKET — After rolling to a victory over Central Falls in a semifinal of the 31st annual Donaldson/Lynch Memorial Holiday Tournament on Thursday night, St. Raphael Academy veteran chief Tom Sorrentine and his son, assistant James, stuck around the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket’s gymnasium to watch the semi clash between Shea and Tolman. The Sorrentines were impressed. “Shea’s a good team; they were ripping up the floor,” he explained. “They’ve got all the pieces. I was worried before the (championship final) because of the way they raked the boards. They really got after it.”
Whatever happened between that contest and Saturday night puzzles Sorrentine, whose contingent utilized a stunning 34-10 flurry over the final 9:14 of the initial stanza to parlay the Raiders, 80-49, before a fan base of perhaps 250 at the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket gymnasium.
The final statistics hardly came as a surprise to the father-and-son tandem, which watched junior Avion Bloe erupt for a tilt-leading 32 points (with seven assists), while senior Zaheer Santiago posted 21 points and classmate Huascar Beato 17, who also finished with 10 rebounds and two blocks.
That trio, incredibly, accounted for 70 of SRA’s 80 points. Not so surprising is this: Santiago took home the Tourney MVP honors, while Beato was selected to the All-Tournament Team with SHS senior Joe Adeboyega (seven points), CF junior Dutchie Arroyo and Tolman senior Malcolm Lopes.
For the Raiders, only junior Nathan Rodrigues registered a double- digit evening (10 points). Sophomore Erickson Bans had an off- night, notching only eight. Senior Ruben Delgado tacked on the same amount, while Adeboyega knocked down seven and junior Taivon Curry six.
“It was us who didn’t play well,” stated first-year head coach/old SHS mentor Steve DeMeo following the defeat, one that dropped his club to 1-1 overall. “It was us who didn’t adapt to their 3-2 zone. We got no ball movement whatsoever. Everyone was stationary; we just weren’t moving. And the offense, it was ‘one pass, one shot, one pass, one shot.
“We got down on ourselves early and started to play more individually,” he added. “You can’t do that, no matter what the score. You have to play together. It was just of those nights.”
Sorrentine’s crew jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first 3:07, then made it 14-6 after a Beato three-ball with 10:45 left. Bans, who uncharacteristically was rather cold, drained a trey to slice the deficit to 16-12, and it seemed Shea was in business. It wasn’t. Bloe canned a trifecta and Santiago netted three more 68 seconds to push the SRA cushion to 30-14 with 7:55 left before the break.
Delgado hit a layup 16 ticks after that to cut it to 30-16, though the Saints manufactured a 20-6 surge down the stretch (in the final 7:39) to enter intermission with a commanding 50-22 lead.
It gets better, for SRA, that is. In the final 20.1 ticks, Bloe (pronounced Blue) alone accounted for seven points, scoring on a driving lay-in, a mid-range jumper and a threepointer at the buzzer.
The Saints mustered another 13-0 flurry over the first 3:47 of the final stanza to ice it. Adeboyega netted a turnaround hook with 11:45 left on the clock; that signified Shea hadn’t registered a single points in 5:21 (dating back to the first halt) – or a basket in the previous 9:12.
“They’ve got such good guards in Bans and Gomes, we didn’t want them to be able to drive the lane,” Tom Sorrentine said. “Bans is really crafty with the ball, and Gomes is a good ball handler, too, bu I thought our younger guys played pretty well.
“Huascar and Zaheer are our only starters coming back; they’re the only guys with any real experience,” he added. “The others are learning as they go. I told them before the game, ‘Hey, you’re going to make mistakes, and I’ll probably ended up yelling at you, but keep on playing hard.’ We pretty much did. We’re not a seasoned team yet, but I’ll say we’re getting there.” SHEA (49) – Erickson Bans 2 3-4 8, Nathan Rodrigues 4 0-0 10, Lucas DeSilva 1 1-2 4, Taivon Curry 2 2-4 6, Carlos DePina 1 0-0 3, Tahkwan Gates-Brown 1 1-2 3, Gerald Soe 0 0-0 0, Marquis Gomes 0 0-0 0, Orlando Correia 0 0-0 0, Joe Adeboyega 3 1-1 7, Ruben Delgado 4 0-2 8; totals 18 8-15 49. ST. RAPHAEL (80) – Avion Bloe 13 1-2 32, Zaheer Santiago 6 67 21, Huascar Beato 7 1-1 17, Nick Allienello 0 2-2 2, Mike Harris 0 0-0 0, Devin O’Malley 1 0-0 2, Jayden Garces 1 0-0 2, Ameir Gomes 1 0-0 2, Manee Castillo 0 0-0 0, Izaiah Correia-Tapia 0 00 0, Matt West 0 0-0 0, Alex DellaRosa 1 0-0 2; totals 30 10-12 80. Three-point field goals: Bloe 5, Santiago 3, Beato 2, Bans, Rodrigues 2, DeSilva, DePina. Halftime: SRA, 50-22.